Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of social media in the marketing of academic library resources and services in Kuwait and identifies the factors related to the use of social media applications in marketing academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative data-collection approach using a paper and online questionnaire has been employed to elicit the opinions of librarians working in academic libraries in Kuwait in both private and public institutions. In total, 89 valid questionnaires have been analyzed using descriptive ( frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations) and inferential statistics ( factor analysis, correlations, experimental analysis and regression). Findings – The study shows that the academic librarians have a positive perception toward the use of social media. The identified factors relating to the use of social media for marketing library information resources and services are the usefulness of social media tools in raising awareness and in providing needs analysis and satisfaction assessments. However, management support for the use of social media for library marketing is poor. Practical implications – This study provides insights into the factors related to the use of modern social media platforms to promote information resources and services at academic libraries to provide outreach services to current and potential users. Originality/value – This research contributes to the field of information studies as it highlights the importance of using social media platforms in marketing academic library information resources and services. Library administrators could use the results to develop social media marketing plans to effectively promote their library resources.

Introduction

New technologies have allowed libraries to adopt online marketing strategies to promote their resources and services (Siddike et al., 2015) to as many users as possible (Garoufallou, Siatri, Zafeiriou and Balampanidou, 2013). In particular, social media, defined as “a group of Internet-based applications that allow for the creation and exchange of user-generated content” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, p. 62), has enabled people to interact and share information online (Xu et al., 2015). With the rise of social media in the last decade, many libraries have included social media applications as primary marketing and communication tools to engage with the user community (Luo et al., 2013; Kho, 2011; Garoufallou, Zafeiriou, Siatri and Balapanidou, 2013; Jahan and Ahmed, 2012), as social media offers real-time channels for communication, information sharing and interactive dialogue at any time on any portable mobile device (Palmer, 2014; Xu et al., 2015). ICT penetration and use in Kuwait is high, with social network use as high as 90 percent for Kuwaitis aged 15–۴۴ years old. Social media in Kuwait has been found to be mainly used for news and information (94 percent) with female use (91.2 percent) and male use (89.4 percent) being relatively similar (The Central Agency for Information Technology, 2016). Therefore, given the depth of social media penetration in Kuwait, it is expected that this would have an effect on the use of social media in higher academic institutions. Unfortunately, academic libraries in Kuwait have lacked the initiative to adopt social media applications, even though the higher education institutions the libraries belong to generally have good technological infrastructure (Al-Daihani, 2009; Al-Daihani and AlAwadhi, 2015). Therefore, this exploratory study examined the factors related to the use of social media applications in academic libraries to market their resources and services. It was expected that the results of this study could assist academic libraries develop strategies for using social media tools to promote their resources and services, publicize news and events and increase their visibility, outreach and customer engagement.